BookMarks

Jul 13, 2010

Located in central Illinois, the Brockman farm is a CSA (community-supported agriculture): 186 people in the area pay for and receive a regular delivery of produce. The book’s main character is the author’s brother Henry, who works endlessly. The author includes many scenes of three generations enjoying work, play and feasting together. Brockman provides information in a lyrical, compelling narrative. A reader comes as close as one can to living on a farm for a year without actually getting dirt under one’s fingernails. The organic family vegetable farm remains a rare and fragile thing; few people have the strength or tenacity to risk depending this much on the land for annual income, or to put in day after day of hands-in-earth work. The Brockmans have made the commitment.